Longmont, Dillard's settle for $5.5 million

By Scott Rochat Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
01/21/2014 05:29:13 PM MST

Updated:
01/21/2014 10:45:21 PM MST

(
Greg Lindstrom
)

Dillard's will get the $5 million it originally asked for its Twin Peaks Mall store, plus $500,000 for its costs in the condemnation lawsuit brought by the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority, according to the terms of a settlement released Tuesday.

Under the agreement, the entire $5.5 million is due by Feb. 14, but can be extended to Feb. 28 if everyone involved agrees it's necessary. The base $5 million will be paid by mall owner NewMark Merrill Mountain States, and the $500,000 is to come from LURA.

The Longmont City Council voted unanimously to give LURA the $500,000 it needed for the settlement. Acting as the LURA board, it also approved the settlement and the eventual transfer of Twin Peaks' title to NewMark Merrill.

(
Greg Lindstrom
)

"The only thing harder than herding cats is getting three sets of lawyers to agree on settlement language," City Attorney Eugene Mei joked to the City Council, referring to Dillard's, LURA and NMMS. "But we got it done."

Final approval is scheduled for Feb. 11.

"The property shall be delivered by Dillard's ... as essentially an empty building shell with all merchandise and inventory removed," the agreement states. That includes computers, intercoms, shelving and loose fixtures, but not basic infrastructure such as plumbing, wiring or heating/cooling units, which will remain.

Once complete, the deal means that the store's title and control of its operating agreement with the mall will pass to NewMark Merrill, allowing it to begin an $80 million renovation project. Under the operating agreement, Dillard's could veto any unwanted renovations.

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Negotiations between first NewMark Merrill and Dillard's, and then LURA and Dillard's, came to a standstill last spring. LURA's top offer came to $3.6 million, while Dillard's held out for $5 million. In court, LURA requested $3 million while Dillard's asked for $6.3 million, the amounts reached by their respective appraisers.

In December, a court-appointed panel gave a preliminary award of $6.3 million. The money would have stayed on deposit with the court -- with a portion available to Dillard's -- until the award was either confirmed or revised by a jury in April.

The settlement calls for the jury trial to be dismissed.

Dillard's also will pay $3,143 in owed common area maintenance fees, along with $108.75/day in prorated maintenance charges for the part of February before Dillard's leaves.

The $5.5 million will be paid into a court escrow account, and will be released to Dillard's on Feb. 17. The day after that, Dillard's is scheduled to dismiss the appeals it had filed.

The agreement also calls on LURA, NewMark and Dillard's to coordinate any news releases about the settlement, to use their "best efforts" to avoid talking to the media about it beyond those releases, and to "not disparage each other before the public or press, assuming the terms of this settlement are carried out."

"Tensions are still high, and we should do everything possible not to add fuel to the fire," Mei said.

Human services funding

The Longmont City Council voted 6-1 to give the Boulder Valley Women's Health Center $15,000 out of its contingency fund, to compensate for not receiving human services funding this year.

Friends and employees of the Boulder Valley Women's Health Center asked the Longmont City Council to reverse an advisory board decision and provide $15,000 for the organization's women's health center in Longmont.

The center provides a free teen clinic along with other family planning and gynecological care for low-income women. The site has not had city funding for two years. It withdrew from the human services funding process two years ago when several Longmont residents protested that BVWHC provides abortions (which the Longmont site does not provide but the Boulder site does), and failed to apply last year due to an error by the agency's staff.

Roughly 71 percent of Boulder County's teen births occur in Longmont.

This year, about $690,000 was available to give to the city's human services agencies, after funding was set aside for the city's anti-poverty program and child-care certificate program. Fifty-two agencies applied with 63 programs; after going through a new scoring system, 28 agencies and 31 programs were recommended for funding.

Councilman Jeff Moore noted that while several of the services could be provided by the Salud Clinic, the BVWHC site was the only place in town where zero-cost women's care could be received.

"So there is an unmet need," Moore said.

Councilman Gabe Santos was the sole "no" vote saying he wasn't opposed to funding, but that the system should be left to work and that it was too early in the year to tap the council's fund for emergencies.

A rezoning for the proposed Copper Mill Apartments, a 250-unit development near Mill Village, passed its first reading vote 5-2. Councilwomen Sara Levison and Polly Christensen opposed the move. The final vote is set for Feb. 11.

The 17.7-acre area, southeast of Ken Pratt Boulevard and south of Great Western Drive, is zoned for industrial economic development. Several neighbors in the nearby Mill Village neighborhood opposed the development, arguing among other things, that it would put two large apartment complexes within two blocks.

The neighbors asked for and will get time Feb. 11 to make a single presentation rather than offer separate comments in testimony.

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